Senator Daniel Inouye tells a history of the Democratic party in Hawaii steeped in his own experience. The gist of it is that after WWII, the GI bill offered education opportunities for plantation boys that they otherwise would never have had. Many went on to receive a higher education, returned to Hawaii, and eventually ousted the party of the plantation, the Republicans. It's a great story, and an accurate one, even though it overlooks other contributions. The updated version of this story has a punch line: Same Plantation, Different Owners.

Charles Djou recorded a more recent perspective on Hawaii politics, noting that the voters of Hawaii had made a choice. They chose the same old system of machine politics, one party representation, and the grand fount of federal funds in DC. But even if the fount shuts down entirely (omitting of course, Pearl Harbor, which doesn't need a slate of Democrat windbags to secure funding), Hawaii's machine will only look like it's losing a leg. It will take much more to fracture it's real foundation.

In defense of this statement, I offer you Wisconsin for comparison. Such a state of affairs is unimaginable here, as is any near-term hope for prudent fiscal management. But the opportunity will come in Hawaii, as the burdens of deficit spending continue to assert themselves. It will begin with the Beard's plan to leverage "investments" in infrastructure, when he realizes that he can't get the money cheap enough unless Hawaii's balance sheet looks a lot better. (Note to the Beard: Check out BHIAX. Its one year load adjusted return is -3%, and Morningstar lists its Alpha at -1.04. Granted, it holds a lot of county debt, but still says much about the prospects for funding large projects in Hawaii.)

Hawaii will continue to flounder. And anything the Beard and his regime manage to accomplish will probably make things worse. If you doubt this, look at Obama's record and remind yourself that every left wing democrat fad runs longer and harder in Hawaii than anywhere else.

The only solution is to take on that foundation directly. Hawaii unions have abdicated legitimacy by way of corruption. The Hawaii Republican Party should adopt a plank to make Hawaii a right-to-work state, and make the case for sound management and economic freedom as opposed to corruption and favoritism at every opportunity, for in these times, the opportunities will be many.

Governor Abercrombie's ham-handed political stunts regarding President Obama's birth records are vintage Hawaii Democrat. It seems that whatever silly stunt the National Democrats have on hand, there's a Hawaii Democrat stepping up to be a tool. As if to jumpstart his path to laughingstock-in-chief, he latched on to a "feed the birthers" action item, and started bouncing off the walls like a motorized garden gnome. To his rescue come some more tools, hoping to cash in on the coming avalanche of birthers demanding an official copy.

While none of this is new, closer examination may be revealing. It’s abundantly clear that The Beard’s intellect is not his strong point. He is however, a successful politician, albeit one with a very old playbook. In the midst of his sober State of the State speech, he was still jockeying an asinine issue ostensibly of his own making. I ask: did Mr. Abercrombie slip on banana peel, or did someone hand off the task to him?